Friday Music Post - For Feeling Happy After a Week of Dealing With Mess

When you think of Protestants for the Common Good, you think of good music.

I think I will start a tradition of posting a song every Friday that makes me feel happy.  After a week of thinking about how to fix the worlds problems, don't we all need to smile and look at the sun for a minute!?

And if you do that all the time during the week, I wish terrible things for you (its a joke).



-Tim

What Would Jesus Do About the Debt Ceiling? Pt.2 A Sad Joke

Ezra Klein makes a funny about the debt ceiling talks and the Christian's who are making me hurt inside:

“Our founding fathers understood that [private property] was a very important part of the pursuit of happiness. Being able to own things that are your own is one of the things that makes America unique. But I happen to think that it’s in jeopardy. It’s in jeopardy because of taxes; it’s in jeopardy because of regulation; it’s in jeopardy because of a legal system that’s run amok. And I think it’s time for us to just hand it over to God and say, ‘God, You’re going to have to fix this.’ ” — Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

The negotiations had been ongoing for weeks. America was near to purposefully defaulting on its debt for the first time in history. But the leaders of the two parties couldn’t quite get to a deal. Finally, one of the GOP’s presidential hopefuls stood up. “God is going to have to fix this,” he said.

The White House team looked at him skeptically. “If we can’t come to a deal before August 2nd,” they said, “why don’t we just raise the debt ceiling with a clean bill and then continue with negotiations to reduce the deficit?” There was silence for a minute as everyone in the room considered this. “No,” replied the presidential aspirant who wanted to win over social conservatives in Iowa. “The Lord will save us.”

Two days later, Moody’s threatened to downgrade not only the United States’s credit rating, but the ratings on 7,000 associated municipal bonds, and perhaps many more than that. “We’ll offer you a deal,” said the desperate White House negotiators. “You’ve wanted to raise the Medicare eligibility age forever. You want cuts to Social Security. You want cuts to domestic discretionary spending. We’ll give you all of that, and more, and we’ll ask for less than half as many taxes as the bipartisan fiscal commission did, and we’ll even let you figure out which taxes those will be through a future tax reform effort. Let’s just get this done.”

The room was silent for a moment. “No,” the ambitious politician said. “There can’t be more revenues, which means there can’t be a deal. God is going to have to fix this.” He suggested that they pray. Out of ideas, they did.

The next morning, Ben Bernanke warned the Congress that default would be “calamitous.” Standard & Poor’s said there was a chance that they’d downgrade the United States’s credit rating before the end of July. Independent experts looked at what would happen if the government had to prioritize and found it would almost certainly lead to a recession. China began asking that we “guarantee investor interests.” Again, some in the room begged for a deal. Again, the devout politician argued that the deadlock was beyond mortal means to solve.

One week later, the market bottomed out. The Dow dropped by 1,000 points. Interest rates skyrocketed. The indicators for employment and GDP growth turned south. Word leaked of the Republican negotiator’s repeated requests to let God handle the debt ceiling. The public turned on him, and the stress of that rejected led to a massive, and tragically fatal, heart attack.

Upon arriving in heaven, the man marched straight over to God. “Heavenly Father,” he said, “I had faith in you, I prayed to you to save us, and yet you did nothing. Why?” God gave him a puzzled look, and replied “I gave you the option to raise the debt ceiling clean, convinced the other side to give you almost everything you had ever asked for in the past, and sent everyone I could think of to warn you about what would happen if you kept refusing to come to a deal. What more did you expect?”

(Apologies, of course, to this old joke.)

It is actually not really a funny joke, its kind of weird, but it makes a good point.  I think there is obviously a greater question of what the hell it means for "God" to do anything in the world and how that process works.  That is a question we should perhaps table for another day, but I will say that it seems to me that in a situation like this, what is being conflated is the will of God and the will of a very specific political ideology/strategy.  And believe me, I doubt for a second that what Rick Perry thinks will happen is we will all pray and wake up one morning to a magically signed budget and the restoration of our "unique" America.  If it actually went down like that I'd be the first to write a fat check to his presidential campaign (even if he chose not to run).  What people like Governor Perry really mean is that we all pray and then someone like him will win the election and God doth shineth His favor on thee (apologies if my King James Version speak is grammatically incorrect.  I never know what is going on when I read that stuff).  If that be so, I hope God is too busy causing all the suffering in the world to let that happen.



-Tim

Immigrants and the Common Good

From an article sent to me by Protestant's for the Common Good's own Betsy Neely:

The cause of the worker shortage is...a harsh new immigration law enacted by Georgia politicians. Set to take effect July 1, the new policies are modeled closely after the controversial anti-immigration legislation enacted in Arizona last year. Among other things, they give police the power to check the immigration status of criminal suspects...

The result is a dire labor shortage in the state's $11-billion agricultural sector. With more than 11,000 positions unfilled, nearly half of Georgia's farmers report that they have too few workers. They stand to lose $300 million as a result. In some cases the crops have already rotted in the fields and have been plowed under.  

The article goes on the talk about the state offering unemployed probationers the opportunity to fill the dearth and make some money for themselves.  Doesn't seem to be going very well.  

Definitive proof that undocumented migrant workers are actually fulfilling a necessary role in our economy?  Hardly.  Something to make you think a little bit more about that question? Yes please!  


-Tim

Kindergarten Cop and Wisconsin Politics

Wisconsin's Recall Madness Begins: By advancing the idea that elections can be undone if people only protest hard enough ends up degrading our democracy. It makes the job of governing—which is hard enough—take a back seat to a cycle of constant threats that makes reasoning together all but impossible.


I'll be the first to admit that the notion of recalling despicable politicians excites me to no end.  I was fresh out of high school in 2003 when California, from whence I hail, was abuzz with the Terminator running for the role of governator in a recall election.  I didn't know a thing about state politics and I have to admit that the prospect of feeling like I was watching Kindergarten Cop (OMG favorite line in a movie ever) (seriously, there are so many amazing clips from this movie. I urge you to watch every single one if you want to be blessed) every time I turned on the news was very very exciting.  Needless to say, he won, and now California is in terrible shape.  Perhaps he could go back in time and fight his own mother before he was born (just kidding, it was all totally worth it).  


Getting back to reality, I have to say agree with the point John Avlon makes in the article I posted above regarding the recall elections going on in Wisconsin.  As someone who thinks a one, six-year term for president is a good idea, the notion of having candidates operate with a perpetual gun to their heads is a scary scary thought.  And really, Avlon's most salient observation is that such recall elections are not really matters of state's rights and local politics anymore.  The gun is being held by those with money from all around the country.  As he says: Tip O’Neil’s time-honored admonition that “all politics is local” has been turned on its head. Out-of-state activist groups now flood local elections with cash in an attempt to frame a national narrative. Welcome to the post-Citizens United world.


Unless all this somehow ends up with Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan being elected together, I don't think I am down. 


-Tim

¡Ay, caramba!

"As your congressman on the House floor, I will do anything short of shooting them. Anything that is lawful, it needs to be done because illegal aliens need to quit taking jobs from American citizens."

-- Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), quoted by the San Antonio Express-News, on illegal immigrants.

via Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

Mexican (and I guess Filipino) Jesus

My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant: One day when I was 16, I rode my bike to the nearby D.M.V. office to get my driver’s permit. Some of my friends already had their licenses, so I figured it was time. But when I handed the clerk my green card as proof of U.S. residency, she flipped it around, examining it. “This is fake,” she whispered. “Don’t come back here again.”

I often feel rather conflicted about many political issues and their correlation to the Gospel vis-à-vis my own political biases. I have tried to highlight the problematic nature of this relationship in prior posts such that we might all be critical in self examination.

However, one particular area in which I feel no such tug of war, is the realm of illegal immigration and the manner in which Christians ought orient themselves in the face of the xenophobia and racism that pervades much of our national discourse.

To be a people that professes to live by the loving and compassionate example of Christ is to be especially mindful of those who are rejected, unseen, and unacceptable in the eyes of the dominant class.  But above all else, to be Christ-like is to recognize AND impart the full personhood of each individual regardless of whether they have a certain piece of paper, are taking the job that you don't want to work anyway, or as the article above describes, are someone you know and respect.  The legal status of an individual as determined by the state is not a moral issue in my opinion.  But how we impart the dignity of Christ upon an individual, that is no doubt an issue of conscious.

-Tim

Surely God is in this place...

This morning, in an act that is completely uncharacteristic at this point in my life, I found myself reading this week's Lectionary texts.  As I read the first selection, Genesis 28:10-19, I found myself being lulled by the familiarity of the story which tells us of Jacob's Ladder--a dramatic account of stolen birthrights, flights from danger, and visions of angels.  All of these elements make for a truly great story, but, it's so often used, I find my eyes glazing over as I skim through the text.  Counterfeit blessing, sibling rivalry, fleeing for life...yada, yada yada.

I've read this passage so many times...it's hard to imagine finding something new in the text.  But today I did.

As I scanned the words, I found my eyes glued to this line, "Surely God is in this place--and I did not know it!"

I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church.  As a preacher's kid, I've been to my fair share of weddings, funerals, ordinations...you name it.  And I'd say a good 90% of those events featured some teary female soloist singing "Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place" from the bottom of her good southern heart.  Don't get me wrong; I love a good solo.  And I love crying to hymns.  In fact, I flat out can't help it.  A sincere hymn brings me straight to weeping.  But never, in all my time of Sunday School and hymn-singing and being moved by the Spirit did I notice the wonderment that is captured in Jacob's declaration.

"Surely God is in this place--and I did not know it!"

Jacob is awe-struck.  He's completely caught off guard.  He's been running around in circles and finally, exhausted, maybe even a little delirious, he's seen God.

When I was a student at Vanderbilt Divinity School, I wrote my master's thesis on wonderment--a nebulous idea, I know--but an essential piece of our theological experience.  I think, sometimes, in the face of political unease, financial hardship, and the unending grind of daily life, we forget to open our eyes.  Whether by means of a stairway to heaven, a Madonna in blue jeans cradling her infant on the subway, the words of our present-day prophets, or a lightning storm rushing in over Lake Michigan, it is my hope that we can become aware of the presence of God all around.  May God be with us.  And may we know it.

--Betsy

Don't Frack On me.

I have one thing to say before talking at all about this wonderfully named craze (though its been around for decades) sweeping the nation. Yes, I will be using frack in an adolescent way as many times as possible throughout the writing of this post.  Lets keep count.

Fracking is the fun term for hydraulic fracturing.  This is a process during which water is mixed with sand and chemicals to frack up rocks deep under ground in order to release natural gas and/or oil.  Basically, you drill a fracking hole, and then you shoot water super hard to frack things up in a way a drill could not.  The concept doesn't seem that different from this (it may seem like a boring video at first, but just think about it).

I don't think its hard to imagine what kinds of weird things can go wrong, or what harmful side effects might occur when you are fracking injecting billions of gallons of water mixed with toxic chemicals into the earth.  Aside from a mass genocide of underground moll people, much of the water used cannot be recovered and its unclear where it fracking goes.  So, reports of tap water so fracking contaminated that its making people want to pass the frack out when showering are not unfathomable.  Up to date, their is inconclusive evidence that fracking is really causing such fracked up problems.  The EPA is now looking into it and should have an answer by 2014.  Excellent.

The interesting question to me is how a controversial practice that may negatively affect the health of many, but is a massive money maker to the all powerful and politically connected (did I mention Halliburton is highly involved?) can be stopped (assuming it should be stopped at all).  One answer might be a vast consensus from the scientific community that fracking is terrible.  But given the fact that it is probably a necessary part of being the Republican presidential nominee to deny a specific vast consensus from the scientific community, I don't have a lot of faith in this option.  That a few people in some random town in Pennsylvania now have hairless dogs and horses, isn't going to cut it either.  It doesn't mean a fracking thing what the frack happens to a few people here and there.  Why?  Because there is way too much fracking money to be made here, and way too much political capital to be gained as well.

Fracking may be the answer to our energy woes (at least for a second or two), or it may pave the way towards a tragic public health crisis.  I don't know what the answer is, but I guess ultimately I am concerned that the answer really doesn't fracking matter.

Frack count: 15

-Tim

also. Stephen Colbert is much funnier than I.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Anti-frack-attack
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Michelle Obama is Fat

Michelle Obama is a Big Fat Hypocrite

Michelle Obama ate a fatty meal. OMG. I hope it goes straight to her thighs.

If this is the kind of scrutiny that comes with taking a strong stand on anything, may I never become a vocal proponent against murder.

What Would Jesus Do About the Debt Ceiling? IDFK!

First Read: "Six months ago, how many Republicans would have believed: 1) that the Obama White House would have backed a plan to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years; 2) that the president would agree to link the debt limit to spending cuts; and 3) that Obama would put Medicare and Social Security on the table? The Tea Party and deficit hawks like Jim DeMint would have won the argument when it comes to debt, and they would have achieved something -- especially on Medicare and Social Security -- they'd probably never get under a Republican president, unless he or she had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. But Republicans walked away from the deal, because they wouldn't give up the one thing that Democrats were asking for in return: any increases in tax hikes for the rich."

Source: Teagan Goddard's Political Wire

If you don't know what the acronym IDFK means, I can't help you.  Either way, you should know that I am not even going to attempt to answer that question.  I don't really know WJWD for most things that occur in my life.  Would Jesus take the Green Line to work or the bus?  Would Jesus go eat at Ribs N Bibs even though their employees are so mean?  Would Jesus pass gas in an elevator if he was in there alone?  I truly can't say.

With all the federal budget drama going on, encompassed nicely in this little paragraph above, I am inclined to wonder about how people of faith should respond to such things.  Implicitly, if you are Christian at least, this does have something to do with the question of what Jesus would do.  Today in a staff meeting, Protestant's for the Common Good Executive Director Al Sharp said something like (I can't remember anything anymore), "You cannot be religious without being political."  Lest Sam Harris have an aneurism, I don't think that statement is as simple as it sounds.  It is not Tim+Jesus=Ihatecloning.  It is something like that, but its more like Tim+(Overarching Life View)=Ihatecloning.

I certainly don't know what Jesus would do about the debt ceiling.  Quite honestly, he probably wouldn't have concerned himself with it.  But he is not Tim, and I am not Jesus.  But I do have an overarching life view, that involves Jesus, and I can't help but use that in thinking about What Would Tim Do About the Debt Ceiling (answer: I would drill domestically for oil).

Btw, I am almost certain Jesus would have no problem farting in an elevator.

Blanket Beliefs (Abortion!)

Pro-Life Protest in Daley Plaza-Chicago, IL-July 11th, 2011

I took this picture right outside of the Protestants for the Common Good office.  It has been quite some time since I have seen a protest like this, and I don't know if that is because I have housed myself within spheres of pro-choice normativity but there is nothing like the site of mutilated fetus' to cause one to pause. 

What is interesting to me about the abortion debate is the clear dichotomy, split right down an imaginary and all too real political line that divides our political parties regarding the issue.  That's fine and to be expected, as you have some who are pro-choice and some pro-life (I don't like that name, pro-life. If I am pro-choice that does not mean I hope the choice is 100% abortion all the time.  I like life too...I think).  But what is terribly bizarre is why being pro-choice or pro-life automatically must set ones other views on things like taxation, foreign policy, social welfare, healthcare, etc.  Someone who thinks that abortion is murder should not necessarily think that extension of the Bush tax cuts is a good thing.  It is pretty clear that causation runs in some sort of direction and is motivated by certain factors, and I mean that 100% on both sides of the coin.  Someone who thinks abortion should be legal should not necessarily support affirmative action.

What's the deal?  Are we all too lazy to really think about what we support?  Are certain issues like abortion of such a high priority that we'll take whatever we can get?